Saigon Grill Owner Is Sentenced to Three Months in Jail

January 19, 2011

Two years ago, after a federal judge awarded their workers $4.6 million in back pay and damages, the owners of the Upper West Side’s Saigon Grill were arrested and charged with more than 200 counts of falsifying records and tampering with evidence. Now, one of the restaurant’s former owners has been sentenced to three months in jail.

The New York Post reports that Simon Nget was sentenced this morning, a little more than a year after pleading guilty to the felony charge of falsifying records and a misdemeanor charge of witness tampering and retaliation. His wife, Michelle Nget, had her charges reduced to a misdemeanor and then dismissed this morning.

According to the 2008 lawsuit, the Ngets’ assorted sins included paying workers at Saigon Grill and its sister establishment Saigon Spice as little as $1.80 an hour for a 72-hour workweek, and illegally firing 23 delivery workers after they notified the Ngets of their intention to file a wage complaint.

As a condition of his two-year plea negotiation, Simon Nget and his wife must also pay back $47,600 to the state Department of Labor and $84,500 in state taxes.

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